The Dismantling of Time
by david katende
Summary: A mysterious image appears on both the 2nd and 4th Doctor's screens, leading to them having an adventure together.


"Oh Doctor, you left the oven on!" Romanavoratnelundar cried, racing to save her precious cosmic cookies from the dreadful fate that awaited all burned food- the trashcan. She hurriedly slipped an ornate mitten on her right hand and deftly opened the oven and rescued her confections in one swoop. The Time Lady inspected her cookies, regretfully tossing a couple charred specimens into the waste bin. As she laid the cookies out to cool, she said to herself, "Why doesn't the Doctor ever listen? I mean, I love him to death, but enough is enough! This the last time I'll ever bake him my cookies!" As she turned to put her mitten away, she felt the coarse hands of the Doctor on her shoulder. "Romana, you better come have a look. We have a problem," he said, flashing her a smile almost as outrageous as the giant mop of curly brown hair that adorned his head. "What problem, Doctor?" Romana replied, secretly glad to be perturbed for once. "Well," the Doctor began.

"Well, I seem to have misplaced my recorder. Butterfingers!" Two hundred and sixty years earlier, the second incarnation of the Doctor was looking for his perpetually misplaced instrument. "Jamie, would you take a gander under the console and see if my recorder? I'd really hate to lose it, and you know I'm five hundred years too old to be stooping to look for such things. Be a good chap and take a look." Jamie McCrimmon snorted as he knelt down to search under the TARDIS console. "Yeah right, Doctor. Ye'r as fit as a fiddle!" The Scottish clansman heaved a sigh of accomplishment as he discovered the 3-minute-lost pipe. He dusted it off, playfully put his lips on the mouthpiece, and began to play a horrid-sounding excuse for a jig. "Now then, Jamie, enough of that," the Doctor said, indignantly snatching the recorder from Jamie and wiping it on his jacket with affected hauteur. Jamie shrugged and walked around the console to get a look at the control screen. His eyes narrowed as he strained to get a closer look at an object floating in space. They then widened as he realized that the object was in fact moving towards the TARDIS. "Doctor, ye better come see this! thir's an object movin` towards th' TARDIS!" The Doctor dropped his recorder. "Move aside, Jamie," he said, as he jumped towards the console. His initial look of confusion was replaced by a look of sheer terror. With the color drained from his face, the Doctor gasped, "That's not an object! That's a _Dalek_!"

"You better come see what's on the control screen." The Fourth Doctor led his companion to the console room. He turned the control monitor on and Romana turned the focus knob in order to give the both of them a better view. When Romana's eyes adjusted to the screen glare, they lit up in fear. "It can't- I mean- it's impossible!" Romana recalled where her last encounter with creatures like the one on the screen took place- Skaro. "Yes, Romana," the Doctor said, reading her thoughts. "It's a _Dalek_."

"What should we do, Doctor? I mean, have you ever seen a random Dalek floating around like a piece of space debris." Romana turned to the Doctor, who's face had suddenly turned wan with horror. He licked his cracked lips and said raspingly, "Yes. I saw it exactly two hundred and sixty years ago on this exact same screen. It's not floating Romana. It's waiting." "For what?" Romana replied. "I mean, since you've seen it before, won't it be easy for you do deal with it again?" The Doctor wearily shook his head, having seemingly aged a millennium in the space of two minutes. "It's not that simple, Romana. You see, this is the exact same Dalek. I saw this exact specimen in my second incarnation. The problem is that the Laws of Time prevent me from remembering much more than that. This Dalek has my second incarnation trapped as well. Any sudden movement of my TARDIS could result in the dismantling of time. " Romana arched an eyebrow. "So, what do we do then? Just wait for the Dalek to make the next move?" The Doctor shrugged. "We can't do anything. The Dalek has frozen us in space and time. We're trapped."

"We're trapped, Jamie," the Second Doctor said as he turned away despondently from the console screen. "Bit that's nonsense, doctor! Nothing kin trap th' TARDIS!" Jamie blurted. The Doctor shook his head disapprovingly. "Don't you remember the Great Intelligence? The TARDIS isn't completely invincible." "Bit we git oot o' that trap, didnae we?" Jamie interrupted. "How come dinnae ye juist hook up th' console tae th' device that ye rigged up fur that situation?" The Doctor brightened up at this. "That's brilliant, Jamie! Keep an eye on the Dalek. It's dormant right now, but you never know when it might activate. I'll be right back!"

In the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS, Romana paced around the console room. The Doctor noticed her and clucked his tongue. "Don't scuff your shoes on my floors. Remember, we just had them refurnished." Romana turned back to the Doctor with a sneer. "Really, Doctor? A Dalek is floating right toward us, ready to be activated any moment. We _and your second incarnation_ are trapped by this monster, and all you care about is your floor!" Once again, the Doctor merely shrugged. "As I said before, Romana, there's nothing we can do. "

The Second Doctor walked back into the console room with a furrowed brow. Jamie noticed this out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't resist. "Something troubling ye, Doctor?" The Doctor stared at his gadget for several more seconds, before registering what his companion said. "Oh, er yes, Jamie. It seems here that this Dalek has not only trapped my TARDIS, but has another one in his grasp as well! And get this: the other TARDIS has the same serial number as mine!" Jamie looked confused. "What's a serial number?" The Doctor realized the reason for Jamie's confusion, and proceeded to explain:" A serial number is a unique identification number for a TARDIS. It's the way the Time Lords keep track of renegades like me. Remember the license plates on the automobiles we saw in 20th century London, Jamie?" Jamie nodded in affirmation, and the Doctor continued: "Well, the serial number system is sort of like that. The only thing is that there is no way to replicate or duplicate serial numbers- unless _two incarnations of the same Time Lord_ run into each other!" The gravity of the situation suddenly dawned on Jamie. "So that means..." Jamie began before being interrupted. "Yes, Jamie," the Doctor said. "This Dalek has trapped two versions of me; myself and the fourth one, I believe." Jamie then scratched his head. "So what do we do now?" "We'll have to make contact with the other TARDIS!"

The Fourth Doctor was humming a Venusian tune while hemming his pants. Romana rolled her eyes and was about to make a particularly rude comment when the Doctor suddenly collapsed. Being a Time Lady, Romana immediately knew what was going on. One of the Doctor's incarnations was contacting him. Romana decided to exercise patience for once and picked up where the Doctor left off, so to speak. After roughly five minutes, the Doctor came to with a start. "ROMANA!" He cried. "DON'T TOUCH MY PANTS!" Romana sat on the Doctor's stool, petrified with fear. After several tense seconds, the Doctor's face broke into his familiar smile. "You wanted something to do, Romana? Well, it seems as if we have a job on our hands!"

Jamie watched with bewilderment as his version of the Doctor scurried around his console, pressing several buttons and pushing or pulling a lever here or there. Finally, Jamie asked, "What's the plan?" The Doctor did a little jig of delight. "I'm going to materialize my TARDIS into my TARDIS!" Jamie was no longer in the mood for fun and games. "Doctor, tell me whit's actually going tae happen!" The Doctor stopped in his tracks. "Well, it's quite simple, really. I'm going to dematerialize in my future TARDIS. I've used my special device to construct a special time corridor that I can use to jump into my future time stream. The great concentration of Gallifreyan DNA in one area should be enough to activate the Dalek. At that point, we can set our final step of the plan in motion." By this point, Jamie had come to the conclusion that it was best to keep his mouth shut and enjoy the ride. "Whitevur ye say, doctor. Ye'r th' gaffer."

"Are you ready, Romana?" The Fourth Doctor asked. Romana nodded, and the Doctor removed the TARDIS shields. There was a flash of light, and then the 2nd Doctor's TARDIS appeared. "Well?" The Fourth Doctor turned to his lady friend with a maniacal grin. "What do you think?" Romana shrugged. "Not bad, Doctors. Not bad at all. I wonder who we'll find in this TARDIS?" As if on cue, the doors on the 2nd Doctor's TARDIS opened and the elder incarnation strode out, an amazed Jamie at his side. For a moment or two, an awkward silence as thick as pudding pervaded the 4th Doctor's console room. The host took it upon himself to break it. "Well, Doctor, would you like a jelly baby?"

At once, the ice melted. The 2nd Doctor stuck out his hand, which the 4th Doctor took firmly, leaving behind a green jelly baby. "It is good to know that my future is in safe hands." Jamie wasn't as pleased. "Bit whit aboot me, doctor? whaur am ah in yer future?" The 4th Doctor, having seemingly ignored Jamie, laughed and shook his hand as well. "Why, Jamie McCrimmon. How good to see you again. Or should you say how good it is to see _me_ again? Ha-ha. Jelly baby?" Jamie politely refused the offer, and decided to converse with the strange blonde lady who was at the 4th Doctor's side. "Who are ye?" "I'm Romanavoratnelundar. You can call me Romana. I'm a Time Lady from Gallifrey. And you are?" "James Robert McCrimmon of the Clan McLaren." "Oh, so you're Scottish, I presume?" "Aye." All pleasantries were indefinitely postponed when Romana noticed something on the screen. "Doctors, look at the screen! The Dalek is activating!"

Both Doctors rushed to the console, but not to the screen, as Romana expected. They began twisting and turning knobs, pushing buttons, and slamming down levers. Verbal communication was unnecessary; the two Doctors had mapped the whole plan out perfectly during their mental conference. Finally, after seemed like an eternity, the 2nd Doctor spoke. "Are you ready?" The 4th Doctor nodded in confirmation. The 2nd Doctor shook hands with his future incarnation. "Well, sorry that the fun had to end. Maybe we'll do this again next time. Farewell, Romana. Come along Jamie!" Jamie could barely manage a wave at his new acquaintances before he was whisked away, back into the TARDIS that he was used to. Once inside, Jamie asked a question. "What did you and the other Doctor do?" The 2nd Doctor rubbed his hands in delight. "Well, the Dalek outside isn't a typical Dalek. It's the SuperDalek; it has the ability to traverse time and space, much like a TARDIS. It's the only one in existence. What the Dalek was trying to do was capture my TARDIS and drain all the vortex energy from it. The Super Dalek is equipped with a special anti-matter converter. It was going to convert the energy into anti-matter, signal an entire fleet of Daleks, and then self-destruct. The space-time hole left by the explosion would act as a gateway for the Dalek army, allowing it to travel throughout all of space and time, completely uninhibited. We can't have that, can we, Jamie?" "No sir, " Jamie replied. "But what was the solution you came up with?" "I'm getting to that Jamie, I'm getting to that," the Doctor responded, with annoyance.

"Do you get the story so far, Romana?" The 4th Doctor asked his companion. "I think so," she replied. "Do continue." "Very well. The Super Dalek decided to maximize his chances by inserting himself into my time stream. The Super Dalek used my third incarnation as a base, so to speak, and hopped forward one and backwards one. When he caught the both of us, he hit the jackpot. _Or so he thought._ He created a time paradox. That's why I wasn't able to remember all of what happened when I experienced this in my 2nd incarnation. " Romana's eyes lit up. "I know what happened now! Your 2nd incarnation was able pip down here using a time corridor he created. The presence of two TARDISes allowed you two to create a special force field that reflects any outside forces, _including anti-matter convertors!_ The force field is holding the extractor rays stationary right now. When the 2nd Doctor makes it back to his proper time, the ray will fire back like a slingshot, destroying the Dalek!" The 4th Doctor grinned cheekily, stuffing his face with jelly babies. "That's exactly right," he rejoined with his mouth full. The two of them then turned to the screen monitor, hoping dearly that they were both right.

The 2nd Doctor nearly cried out in joy as he returned his TARDIS to its original position. "Jamie, make sure my recorder is nearby! If this works out, I'll play that victory song I learned during my last visit to Mars!" Jamie let out a playful groan, inwardly glad that the situation had been ameliorated to the point of playing musical instruments once again. The Doctor counted to thirty, and then switched off his time corridor. Both Doctors removed their TARDIS shields, and BAM!

Romana had been uncharacteristically trying to catch a catnap in the moments before the explosion, and consequently bruised her head when the Super Dalek imploded. She noticed the Doctor looking at her with an air of playful concern. "It's alright, Romana. Go back to sleep. It was only an implosion that saved all of the universe from the dismantling of time." Romana yawned, nodded, and wordlessly decided that she would take the Doctor up on his offer. As she walked towards her room, though, a she was hit with a sudden thought. "Doctor, " She cried, eyes gleaming as she raced back to the console room. All sleep was forgotten now. She had a more important matter to take care of. The Doctor had returned to hemming his pants, and was none too pleased to be disturbed in such an unruly fashion. "What is it?" The Time Lord asked distractedly. "Is it important?" Romana appeared miffed. "Well of course it is!" The Doctor looked up with a slight increase in interest. "Well?" Romana noiselessly waltzed to the kitchen and returned with a platter. "Your cookies are ready!"


End file.
